LOGAN — Scott Barnes recently spent a free Friday night to scout out a section of Blacksmith Fork after another long day in the Utah State athletic department.

The next day, USU's new athletic director spent hours working harder than ever — not encouraging the next donor to plunk down cash to advance another athletic project on campus, but rather in pursuit of a rare salmon fly.

After four hours of searching, Barnes finally found one. He grabbed the fly, tossed it in the river, then followed it for 100 feet before a trout came up and snagged it. Barnes figured he had the perfect opportunity for a catch, so he threw his own fly in and waited, knowing a bite was coming soon. Eventually, the fish came up and pulled on the line, but the new leader of Aggie Nation missed the catch.

"That was the only action I had all day," Barnes said.

In the past, with the exception of basketball, Utah State athletics has been much like Barnes' experience fishing — a huge investment of time and work, but very little action.

The glory years of the 1960s have long since faded, and Aggie fans have been subjected to countless years of football mired in mediocrity or worse. The Aggies were Division I vagabonds, becoming an Independent, making an ill-fated jump into the Sun Belt, and finally finding a safe haven in the Western Athletic Conference. Hoops success at the Spectrum made Logan winters bearable, but the program that alumni and boosters once cared most about — Aggie football — had been at the bottom of the competitive sports dumpster in three different leagues for too long.

On March 8, USU hired Barnes with the charge to direct the Aggie athletic program and resuscitate USU football. Former A.D. Randy Spetman had recently resigned for a job at Florida State and a roughly $400,000 pay raise.

"We wanted to find a place where my experiences could effect positive change," Barnes said of the choice to leave tradition-rich and resource-rich Washington. "We wanted to find a small-college community in the West, and preferably the mountain region for my passion for fly fishing and the outdoors. Logan is the right place to effect positive change, it's right for our family long term, and it's obviously a great career opportunity."

President Stan Albrecht said USU needed someone who could see the opportunities and challenges in the athletic department, adding Barnes was one who had "clearly distinguished himself" as a well-qualified candidate.

Fund-raising aficionado might be more appropriate — from previous stops at Iowa State and Eastern Washington, to name a few, Barnes has built athletic programs from the ground up, mostly through fundraising. He increased private gift support at every stop, got facilities fully privately funded and increased revenue in never-before-thought-of ways for the time, like television, radio and even soft-drink contracts.